News
I have been thinking a lot about African literature–and not because I just got back from a symposium on the subject at Wellesley. I have been fortunate enough to have had conversations with many different people–fellow writers, but also critics, academics, editors, agents, publishers, booksellers–and the different perspectives seem to confirm some trends in the field that I’d like to write about someday, very soon. But first I have to stay focused on the last couple of chapters of my novel.
I am still at Wellesley, and having a wonderful time of it. Tomorrow, I’ll be participating in a roundtable about African Literature. Here are the details:
Saturday, October 7th
10:15 AM – 12 PM
Authors, Critics, Publishers: Conversations about Writing, Translating, Editing, and Publishing followed by discussion with audience.
PNW 212
Wellesley College
Wellesley, MA
More soon, I hope.
I’m in Boston for the rest of the week for a couple of events at Wellesley College. Tonight, Abdourahman Waberi and I will be doing a reading and Q & A at 7:30 PM. Here are the details:
7:30 – 8:45 PM
Readings and Discussion
277 Science Center
Wellesley College
Wellesley, MA
These events are open to the public. So if you’re in the Boston area, do come and say hello.
Mark Sarvas (of TEV) reviews two Turing-related books for the Philadelphia Inquirer: Janna Levin’s A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines and David Leavitt’s The Man Who Knew Too Much.
The incomparable (and eminently quotable) Marjane Satrapi is interviewed in The Independent.
“Joseph Heller once said that he’d succeeded ‘despite that great handicap for a novelist, a happy childhood’.”
“Well, I would have much preferred to have had a normal childhood. I would have loved it if my greatest dilemma, at 14, was whether to go to Benetton for my pullovers. I would have preferred not to have cried all the tears I have cried.”
“Even if it meant not writing?”
“Definitely. Because I would have been happy. But when you’re dropped in a pile of shit, so to speak, you have to decide – either add to the pile, or use it as fertiliser, and grow flowers.”
Her newest graphic novel to appear in the U.S. is Chicken with Plums, translated by Anjali Singh.